Press Release for ""Talking to Action: Art, Pedagogy, and Activism in the Americas""

              Artists in the exhibition: Liliana Angulo Cortés, Efraín Astorga Garay, BijaRi, Giacomo Castagnola, Cog•nate Collective, Colectivo FUGA, Sandra de la Loza and Eduardo Molinari, Dignicraft, Etcétera..., Frente 3 de Fevereiro, Grupo Contrafilé, Clara Ianni and Débora Maria da Silva, Iconoclasistas, Kolectivo de Restauración Territorial, Suzanne Lacy, Alfadir Luna, Taniel Morales, Andrés Padilla Domene and Iván Puig Domene, POLEN, Gala Porras-Kim, and Ultra-red. Bill Kelley, Jr. is the Curator and Lead Researcher of Talking to Action, and is a writer and scholar of community-based practices in the Americas, and Assistant Professor of Latin American and Latino Art History at California State University at Bakersfield. Karen Moss is Consulting Curator, and is adjunct professor of Public Practice at Otis College of Art and Design. Talking to Action’s two-year research phase led by Kelley involved the coordinated efforts of a team of researchers from six different cities in the Americas to inquire into the issues and artist methods that connect the various cities in the hemisphere. Talking to Action also builds upon the scholarship of Otis College’s groundbreaking Public Practice MFA program founded by Suzanne Lacy, as well as the Otis ACT (Artists, Community and Teaching) and Creative Learning programs that combine project-based courses and multidisciplinary community partnerships. Ben Maltz Gallery participated in the Getty’s original Pacific Standard Time initiative in 2010, with the comprehensive exhibition Doin' It in Public: Feminism and Art at the Woman's Building that traced the groundbreaking artwork and community-based efforts of feminist artists and art cooperatives at the Woman's Building in downtown L.A in the 1970s and 1980s. Exhibition Tour
The Talking to Action international tour, managed by Independent Curators International (ICI), includes: Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe, Arizona / Winter 2018; School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois / Summer 2018; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, California / Winter 2019.
Publication
The exhibition is accompanied by the bilingual publication Talking to Action: Art, Pedagogy, and Activism in the Americas, co-published by the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and distributed by University of Chicago Press. The publication encompasses the exhibition, programmatic, and pedagogic imperatives of the Talking to Action project, and includes an introduction by Karen Moss, and essays by the Talking to Action research team María Fernanda Cartagena, David Gutiérrez Castañeda, André Mesquita, Bill Kelley, Jr., Jennifer Ponce de León, Paulina Varas, and UC San Diego scholar Grant Kester. Programming Thu Sept 14, 11am: Graduate Lecture Series: Loreto Garin and Federico Zukerfeld of Grupo Etcetera… lecture about their practice and installation on the windows of the Gelf Fine Arts Bldg as part of Talking to Action Sun, Sept 17, 3-5pm: OPENING RECEPTION / WALK-THROUGH WITH CURATOR BILL KELLEY, JR. 3:30pm
Mon, Sept 18, 3-7pm: Seminars with Artists and Scholar, 3-7pm, Ben Maltz Gallery: Presentation by artist/exhibition designer Giacomo Castagnola, followed by conversations with other Talking to Action artists and scholars. Tue, Sept 19, 6pm: Talking to Action Curators and Scholars in Conversation, USC Roski School of Art and Design. Bill Kelley, Jr. and Karen Moss introduce the curatorial process for Talking to Action, followed by presentations and a conversation with scholars/researchers Jennifer Ponce de Leon and Paulina Varas. Thu, Sept 21, 11am: Graduate Lecture Series: Eduardo Molinari + Sandra de la Loza present a lecture on their own work and their collaboration for Talking to Action. Sat-Sun, Sept 23-24, 10am-5pm: PST LA/LA Free Art Shuttle to South Bay/Long Beach. Free admission to all locations, with shuttles running every 45 minutes between six arts institutions presenting PST LA/LA exhibitions.